THE COMMON WILLOW. 



449 



POLLARDS 

 IN WINTER. 



POLLARD WILLOWS. 



The Pollard Willow has not the same fine branch pattern as the tree 

 in its natural shape, but it sends out long shoots from the stump in curves 

 that are pleasant to the eye, and answers to the breeze with a shimmer of 

 white that plays over the up-turned foliage. Nor are the old stools wanting 

 in picturesque qualities. Even when they are split and heeling over, 

 they hold to the last to their posts as time-worn guardians of the 

 stream's course ; their splintered wood shows pink, in the sunlight, 

 and festooning brambles and wild roses root themselves in the fissures 

 of the rotten stems. When freshly coppiced the old Pollards stand 

 firmly out of the flood water — dark, forms against a winter sky, 

 nt and forlorn. 



